A conventional air conditioner, especially smaller units for homes, includes an exterior portion including a forced air cooled compressor and condenser coil unit which is positioned in a self-contained housing outside of the home, and an evaporator and blower unit inside the home. The function of the condenser coil is to remove heat from the compressed refrigerant, which enters in a gas phase, thereby condensing the refrigerant to a liquid phase prior to entry in the evaporator coil. The liquid refrigerant subsequently expands to a cold gas in the evaporator coil, which cools air circulated past it by the blower inside the home.
The air conditioner is more efficient if the refrigerant leaves the condenser coil and enters the evaporator at a cool temperature. Moreover, since various refrigerants normally condense at temperatures within the range of 100.degree.-130.degree. F., a given refrigerant may not completely condense into a liquid in extremely hot weather, especially if the condenser is exposed to the sun and unshaded. Thus it is desirable to keep the condenser coil as cool as possible.
One technique disclosed in the prior art to cool the condenser coil has the lowermost condenser coils immersed in a water bath such that the coils are cooled by simple conduction. Heat transferred by the refrigerant to the water bath is dissipated by evaporation in the form of spraying the bath water in a fountain. Another technique disclosed in the prior art to cool the condenser coil in an automobile air conditioner, has the coil immersed in the water condensate which has been collected from moist ambient air which has passed over the refrigerant evaporator. None of the prior art techniques however can be easily adapted to an existing compressor/condensor housing in a domestic air conditioning system. None of the prior art mechanisms which carry out these techniques lend themselves to easy installation on an existing air conditioning system by the homeowner himself.